Have you heard? There’s a new bin in town

THERE’S A NEW BIN IN TOWN

FOR A GREENER FOOT PRINT!

Park City now has convenient, affordable curbside composting! Tom and I were eager to become members of Spoil to Soilafter hearing about it from our neighbor, Sarah Berry. It took less than 5 minutes to sign up, a bin was delivered to us the next day, and we were on our way! Couldn’t have been easier. And since the Prospector neighborhood had the minimum of 5 households participating we enjoyed a discount on the starter kit.

David Klein and Annie Pierce launched the curbside food waste recycling service, Spoil to Soil, in July, with a first collection date of July 21st. We love to spotlight locals and local businesses that contribute to our town so we sat down with Annie and David to learn more about their exciting, new green business.

We’re sure you’ll be interested to hear what inspired them to launch the project, and the mission that keeps them energized as they take on the day-to-day workings of turning spoils to soil. I’ll get to that later, but first we want to quickly explain why it’s such a great thing to do and how it works.

WHY COMPOST FOOD WASTE?

Less in the Landfill!
“We want to get as many people involved as we can to help divert food waste from the landfill,” explains David. “I think it’s full as of this coming spring and the new cell they’re digging I think there’s only a 7 year cell life for that, if things stay current, but if we can divert 30% of the food waste then it can extend the cell life by about 20 years.”

Reduce Food Waste Pollution!
Food Waste trapped in landfills causes methane emissions which is 23-28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. By composting you reduce the amount of harmful methane gas and toxic sludge that gets released into the air and into our water sources when organic matter co-mingles with non-organic materials in the landfill. see reference Scientific American (This was the part we weren’t aware of, and I must say was the incentive I needed to get myself in gear.)

Grow Food from Food Waste!This is really the ultimate in recycling. With the help of Spoil to Soil when you separate your food waste you make new, usable, rich compost and become a part of a generative cycle. What was once garbage is re-cycled and used to grow more plants and food! The compost process takes about 90 days. The soil is filled with soil rejuvenating bacteria and enzymes. (And as a member you are entitled to receive composted soil back from Spoil to Soil. You can use it for your own gardening, or donate it to a school or local community garden.)

HOW DOES IT WORK?

From your kitchen counter to the curb on trash day-it’s that easy and it’s just $17 per month. Sign up at spoiltosoil.ORG

Go to Spoiltosoil.org and sign up. There is a starter kit and then the monthly fee. You will receive a countertop caddy, with compostable liners, a larger black curbside bin and a guide for what you can compost. During your daily routine in the kitchen simply train yourself and family members to separate organic food waste from the regular trash by placing it in the waste caddy. On your weekly trash day transfer the liner bag to your curbside bin and place it at the end of your driveway with your other bins.

Spoil to soil collects all the bins in the neighborhood on trash day, and leaves a clean one behind. Just like any new recycling habit it takes a little time to develop. But once you do, it becomes second nature. Don’t live here year round? That’s ok. You can stop and restart membership easily. Click here for pricing info.

The contents of members’ bins are taken to Wild Harvest Farms where the daily batch is added to a row, covered with wood chips and watered.

This starts the process of waste being broken down and turned into soil that we can grow from. When the compost is mixed with regular soil its nutrients help give the soil new life.

David and Annie share the compost pile with owner of Wild Harvest Farms, Phillip James. Phillip already manages a great commercial volume of food waste from the local restaurants. From the commercial compost he grows micro-greens, mushrooms etc. and sells it back to the restaurants. Annie points out that since that compost now comes in part from residential kitchens, “it’s awesome to be able to say that food is now coming directly from us as locals.”

FROM THE OWNER & ADMINISTRATOR

When asked how the venture got started Annie explains, “we bought a house in Peoa, and I was so excited to have space for a garden, and I started composting. And then [David] was wondering – maybe we could get some neighbors involved and we could all compost. He was pushing for it. I was kind of like I don’t know if anybody would even be interested in that.”

“[In any case] we wanted to be sure that it was up to code on our property. So [David] called the city and the county and they invited us to the meetings that at the time were addressing the master plan of reorganization of the landfill.”
Pierce and Klein also communicated with Class 24 of Leadership Park City . Their class project was, Face Your Waste, a diversion of food waste project. She says the timing of it all was perfect.

More than anything David’s motivation is fueled by the positive impact this enterprise has on the environment. And the more households participating, the greater the impact. He mentioned a group in Portland, ME called garbage to garden. “They have grown from a very small group of 5 families to over 5,000!”

As a passionate gardener Annie lights up when she talks about the part of the program where the compost is given back to the members for planting, and also loves the thought that through family composting we are planting a seed for children from a very young age about the importance of being responsible for your waste.

Just four months old and David reports the program is currently getting one new membership a day, and has members in almost all Park City neighborhoods. Pinebrook and Jeremy are in the lead with the most members. Silver Springs has a fair amount of families participating too. Silver Creek is the newest neighborhood to join the composting band wagon.

If we get enough neighbors telling neighbors about this new service think of the difference locals could make just by switching bins! What can you do? Sign-up for service, share this blog with neighbors & friends via email or on Facebook. “Like” the Spoil to Soil Facebook page to help spread the word!

Spoil to Soil has been weighing the collections since day one and will be using those stats to calculate how much emissions the program is offsetting. The city is interested in seeing the data after a year and could potentially get involved.

Full-time agent with Jess Reid | Christie’s Intl Real Estate since 1994, with a passion for the art & science of home resales, and a track record of delivering results that “move you”. Don’t hesitate to contact me for information regarding the selling process. It’s never too early to start preparing for a sale!

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Wonderful in-depth article on recycling that goes well beyond surface reporting. We have been involved in a similar project here in Brunswick for several years now and can attest that the service works very well. We have cut our household trash by more than half by separating out our food waste, including things like coffee grounds. It amounts to an amazing portion of garbage and trash not going to the dump but dedicated to producing great soil we can use on Claudia’s gardens. It does take a little more thought than our former practice of dumping everything in one container but the practical advantage is amazing and useful to how we live and maintain our home…